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Premonition of Ibleam
Enkindel is enjoying a camping trip with his son. suddenly It comes in a brief flash and then it is gone. Something dreadful. Something bad. It... it has already happened... or... it will happen. Somewhere to the northeast- is it happening now? You tell Asahel "It's time to go home." Asahel protests "But we just got out here!" You shake your head "Rain is coming, it's time to go." Asahel sighs but gives no further protest. You return to Zepath and a day later, arrive home. You have not had any dreams, no visions, no mysterious women as night time messengers. The trip home was perfectly uneventful. Zepath is not in flames when you see it in the distance, all looks perfectly fine in the city. You look for Ishamal and find his home empty and the door barred, he lives alone, that probably means he is out of town? You find Tudiya, sitting upon the King's Chair in a stall in the market, to his left, a fruit seller and to the right, a candle seller. Both stalls are seeing more activity than his own, he is waiting for those who need to seek the King's justice. He looks bored, no one is in line for him. You tell Tudiya "I had a...feeling of dread. It's hard to describe, but I fear something is either happening, or is going to happen to the northeast of here. I came back to bring Ash home and to let you know that I mean to investigate." Tudiya asks "What do you mean, dread? Was there a message?' You tell him no, just... a feeling of dread and that you mean to investigate. Tudiya says "As you will then. We will be ready, if more of the beasts are on the way." Twice in your lifetime armies of monsters have come from the wilderness and clearly this is what Tudiya thinks your (premonition?) may have been. You decide to pray for guidance. You fetch a sheep from your herds and bring it to El's temple. You lift the sheep, legs bound together and place it upon the altar. Zebanetha is in attendance, overseeing offerings that day. The officiating priest always asks the purpose of the offering and so you tell him you seek El's guidance. You tell Zebanetha "I seek El's guidance" to which the kindly old priest says "May you find what you seek." Zebanetha hands you a ceremonial knife, that you may slit the sheep's throat. ...lil... t...v... What was that? You look up. Nothing odd is evident, Zebanetha next to you has not moved and other priests move around the temple conducting their duties. A few normal looking people are praying on the benches, as you might expect on any given day. You look back at the sheep, knife in hand. It is fast asleep, a contented look upon it's wolly face, it slumbers peacefully. You slit it's throat. It does not so much as jerk. As it's blood begins to pool upon the altar, an acolyte pours a jar of flammable oil on the sheep, Zebanetha touches a candle to the altar and your offering burns in a perfectly ordinary manner. Your eye is drawn into the smoke. You hear the screeching of a flock of crows and then one great screech which is not a crow at all as all go silent. . You see a crow and look more closely at it's feathers as the blackness within them grows to perfect darkness and within that darkness, the twinkling of stars. You hear the familiar snap of a bow string releasing an arrow and see an arrow climb the sky, passing by stars. When it reaches the pinnacle of it's climb you see the moon appear and then twelve times race across the sky, each time changing shape slowly. You hear the familiar whistle of an arrow in flight and see the arrow descend, you hear the familiar -THUNK- as the arrow lands in the dirt. You recognize this wilderness from your last trip through, you know the lay of the hills. It is east and east-south of Ibleam, a few days from the city. You blink and then there is only mere smoke before you. Zebanetha, candle still in hand is lowering his arm to place the candle down. Mere moments have passed, almost none at all